Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/282

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LXatJGE


247


ULIUS


of the use of lights in funerals, or how far it sprang

from the earlier pagan custom of displaying a number

of lamps as a tribute of honour to the emperor or

others, it is not easy to decide. The practice, as we

have seen, was known to St. Jerome, and is with some

reservation defended by him. This burning of lights

before shrines, relics, and statues naturally assiuned

great developments in the Middle A^es. Bequests

to various lights" in the churches which the testator

desired to benefit generally occupy a considerable

space in medieval wills, more particularly in England.

Upon the symbolism of ecclesiastical lights much

has Deen written by medieval litun^sts from Amala-

rius downwards. That all such lights typify Jesus

Christ, TVTio is the Light of the World, is a matter of

general agreement, wnile the older text of the "Ex-

ultet" rendered familiar the thought that the wax

produced by virgin bees was a figure of the human

Dody which Christ derived from His immaculate

Mother. To this it was natural to add that the ^nck

was emblematic of Christ's human soul, while the

flame represented His Godhead. But the medieval

liturgists also abound in a variety of other symbolic

expositions, which naturally are not always quite

consistent with one another.

Bauickr in Kirdunlex., s. v. Kme; Schrod, ibid., s. v. Lieht; Hcddamorb in Did. Christ. Antia., s. v.; Barontus. AnfMlet ad ann., 5S; Thalbofer, Liturgik, I (Freiburg, 1883), 665-S3: Mf-HLBAUER, Oeachichtc und Bedeuiung der WachJ^ Kchter hex den kinhlichen Funclionrn (Augsburg, 1874) ; Stalky, Studif in Ceremonial (London, 1901), 169-04.

Herbert Thurston.

Ugug^y a Benedictine Abbey, in the Diocese of Poi- tiers, France, was founded about the year a. d. 360, bv St. Martin of Tours. The miracles and reputation of the holy founder attracted a large number of disci-

f)le8 to the new monastery. When however, St. Martin jecame Bishop of Tours and establishecl the monastery of Marmoutiers a short distance from that city, the fame of LigugS declined considerably. Among St. Martin's successors as abbots of Ligu;^ may Ije men- tioned St. Savin, who resigned the post of abbot to be- come a hermit, and Abbot Ursinus, during whose reign the monk Defensor compiled the well-known "ScintUlarum Liber" printed m P. L., LXXXVHI. The Saracenic invasion, the wars of the dukes of Aqui- taine and the early Carlovingians, and lastly the Nor- man invasion were a series of disasters that almast de- stroyed the monastery. By the eleventh century it had sunk to the position of a dependent priory at- tached to the Abbey of Maill^ais, and finally reached the lowest level as a benefice in commendam. One of the commendatory priors, GeofTrey d'Estissac, a great patron of literature and the friend of Ilabelais, built ths existing church, a graceful structure but smrJler by far than the ancient ba.silica which it replacc<l. In 1607 Ligug^ ceased to be a monastery and was an- nexed to the Jesuit college of Poitiers to which institu- tion it served as a country house until the suppression c/ the society in 1762. At the French Revolution the buildings and lands were sold as national property, the diurch being used for some time as the Municipal Council chaT]d>er. Eventually, when the upheaval of the Revolution had subsided, the building was consti- tuted a parish church.

In 1S49 the famous Mgr Pie, afterwards cardinal, became Bishop of Poitiers. This prelate was the inti- mate friend ot Dom Prosper Gu^ranger, re-founder of the French Benedictine Congregation of monks, and in 1852 he established at Ligiigd a colony of monks from Solesmes. In 1864 the priory was erected into an ab- bey by Pope Pius IX, and Dom L6on Bastide was ap- pcnnted first abbot. When, in 1880, the monks were driven from their cloister as a result of the "Ferry laws", many of them retired under Dom Bourigaucl, the suooessor of Dom Bastide, to the monastery of Sflot in Spain ▼^eh was saved from extinction by the


recruits thus received. Some ^^ears later the buildings at Ligug^ were sold to a s}iidicate, civil in its constitu- tion, by which they were leased to the abbot and community who thus entered their monastery once more. Novices now came in considerable numbers and, in 1894, the ancient Abbey of St. Wandrille de Fontenellc in the Diocese of Rouen was repeopled by a colony from J^igiig^. In 1902 the community were again driven out bv the " .Association Laws", and they are now settled in Belgium at Chevetoigne, in the Dio- cese of Namur. On Dom Bourigaiid's resignation, in 1907, Dom I^opold Gau^ain was elected a))l>ot. The community now numlxirs about forty choir monks and ten lay brothers. .

Gallia Christiana, II (Paris, 1720), 1222; CnA&iARDpiS^ Mar- tin et wn vionnMire de Ligugi (I'aris, 1873); Ouiifp LiaugA premier monaHirt des Gaules in Revue d'Aouitaine, I (lS7o), 467-478); Bk«mk, St. Martin* 8 Abbey Ligugi, in Doumside Re- view, XVIII (1H99). 128-139).

G. Roger Hudleston.

Liguori, Alphoxsus. See Alphonsus Liguori, Saint.

Lilienfeld, a Cistercian Abbey fifteen miles south of St. Polten, Lower AiLstria, was founded in 1202 by Leopold the Glorious, Margrave of Austria, the first monks being supplied from the monastery of Heiligen Kreuz near Vienna. The early history of the foumla- tion presents no exceptional features, but as time went on the monastery became one of the richest and most influential in the empire, the abbots not infrequently acting as councillors to the emperor. Perliaps the most remarkable in the whole long series was Matthew KoUweis (1 650-1 C95) who, when the Turks advanced against Vienna, literally turned his monastery into a fortress, instilling a j^arrison and gi\'ing shelter to a large number of fugitives. In 1789 Emperor Joseph II aecree<l the suppression of the ablx>y and the s]X)lia- tion was actually l>egun. The arcliives, manuscripts, and valuables of all kinds were carried away to Vienna, the librar>' was dispersed, and the monuments in the church mostly reniovetl or destroyed. Ijuckily, how- ever, Joseph il died before the ruin was completed and one of the first acts of his successor, Leopold II, was to reverse the decree^ suppressing Lilicnfefd, which thus preserveil its ancient territorial possessions. In 1810 a disastrous fire ravaged the abl>ey buildings, but the church, considered one of the finest in the empire, fortunately escaped damage. The ruined monastery was aftcnvards restored at great expense and is now a fine specimen of the Austrian type of abbey; vast, somewhat heavy in style and suggesting in its out- ward appearance the power and dignity of an institu- tion which hiis survived from feudal times. In 1910 the community numbered forty-nine choir monks, the abbot being Dom Justin Panscliab. The abbey l)e- longs to the Austro-llungarian Congregation Com- munis observant iiv in which the observance, both as regards spirit and tradition, is allied far more closely to that of the Black Monks of St. Benedict, than to the reform of Abbot de Rancd, commonly known as the Trappist Congregation.

Janauschek, Oriffines Cisfcrcicnsf.n I (Vioivia, 1877), 212; Hanthaler, Fafti Campililienttcs (Linz, 1747-17r>4); Brun- NBR, Cialerzienscrbuch (Wiirzburg, 1881), 139-205; Han- THALEHt, Rcctmsus diplomatico-gcncalo'jicua archicii Campililien' sis, 2 vols. (Vienna. 1819-1820); Tkhtz, Archiv., VI (1831), 185-186.

G. Roger Hudleston.

Lilius, Aix)i8ius, principal author of the Gregorian Calendar, was a native of Cir6 or Zir6 in Calabria. His name was originally Aloigi Giglio, from which the Latinized form now used is derived. Montucla (His- toire des Mathdmatiques, I, 678) erroneously calls him a Veronese, and Delambre (Histoiro de I'Astronomie moderne, 1SI2, I, 5 and 57) calls him Luigi Lilio Giraldi, mixing up Aloigi with Lilius Gregorius Gi- raldi, the author of a work *' De Annis et l^lensibua %